I was on facebook yesterday and saw Dean Lavelles status about this and immediately made some phone calls, and unfortunately it was true. For those of you who have never heard of Dave Jennings, he was the worlds greatest kneeboarder of all time and also a professional Wakeboarder during the 1990s. I had the pleasure of getting to watch him ride when I was younger taking lessons with Brian Arthur, and went to OWC with him when there were no obstacles in the water yet besides the pipe dragon. He made me learn my first raley off the flats. Here is a video of him doing what he does best and here is another link of the full story. 37 years young, to young to die, RIP Davehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTsi60VXLtg

he shredded pretty hard on a wakeboard too, he rode for hyperlite/ho but was considered a pro wakeboarder. he is the first kneeboarder to land an sbend and essentially stopped kneeboarding when wakeboarding became more popular and solely wakeboarded. I only had the chance to ride with him a couple times behind the boat and the one time at OWC, and he was such a nice guy and really understood the technique behind learning new tricks. Like I said, he (him and brian arthur) made me learn a raley the day we went to OWC. I had never done a raley behind the boat or off a kicker yet so this was completely my first shot at doing them. Whatever he told me, I landed it my first try. Mind you I was probably 13 years old at the time and was not a very good wakeboarder yet. I think I had one or two inverts at the time. Having me learn the raley was half them getting a kick out of me potentially eating complete shiz and half them thinking i could actually do it. Whatever they told me to do or try, I would no matter what the consequences.
Most people on here are too young or either have not been riding long enough to remember Brian Arthur. He was a pro rider for CWB and Mastercraft and was so fun to watch ride. He had the old school Necrasson style where everything was done HUGE into the flats. He had the original absolute prototype sent to him which was just a white board and I remember thinking that it was probably the coolest thing I had ever seen. He also would do absolutely massive S-bends that were a pretty big trick back then. Here is a link to a wakeboardingmag interview from 2000 with Brian. He is only 34 but stopped riding professionally at 29ish because it just wasn't enough to support his family. I was just a little kid so when I thought of a "PRO" wakeboarder, I was thinking they were making at least $100k a year. Turns out the first wakeboarder to make $100k was Darin Shapiro when he signed his contract with O'brien which was something like a 5-6 year contract at $115k a year. Brian went into the real estate business and was there for the boom so I really hope he made out of it OK. When he moved off the lake, we lost touch because he was just so burnt on the industry and the last place he wanted to be was on the lake. A couple of summers ago I called him up to see if he wanted to come out and take a set with us. He showed up with his old Super Squirt 132, Pro Suctions with the classic 2 inch rainbows and rode like he had never stopped riding. I guess that's how it is when you are at that level.http://wakeboardingmag.com/features/.../brian-arthur/